Thursday, February 28, 2013

Discovering A Non-Vegan World…

Exactly 1 week before Astral & Defy turn 3! (2/24/13)

It sure has
been a while, but we're back for another post! We refuse to give up this amazing platform that allows us the ability to share our experiences with veganism, raising vegan children and vegan pregnancy. Our analytics
show that even though post frequency has declined, more people than ever are searching for vegan information and finding Our Vegan Pregnancy. We want to continue to be an example of how
veganism is healthy and manageable during all stages of life. Astral and Defy
are almost 3 years (plus gestation) of living proof!

Since my last post at the end of October the boys have been progressing rapidly per
usual. I find it just too annoying to rehash every single milestone of
their lives at this point. Every day something new and amazing happens (in
our minds). So instead of the same old stuff, I’m just going to post
a ridiculous amount of cute photos (of which there is no shortage) and hand it over to my absolute favorite vegan daddy to see what he has to say about Astral
and Defy’s recent developments as vegan toddlers:

Astral and Defy are increasingly becoming aware of how non-vegan
the world currently is outside of our "vegan bubble". They get that most of the items in grocery stores are
derived from animals, but don't seem to have a problem with wanting
any of them, even with all the bright, colorful packaging emblazoned with likable (by-design) cartoon characters. We just tell them that the items contain animal products and
that's that, end of story. Like most kids their age (and probably most adults)
they understand that it's wrong to intentionally harm animals when it's
unnecessary to do so. They just have a different understanding of what
necessity is because they know they don't need to eat animal bodies or animal
secretions (or otherwise consume animal products) to be healthy and happy.

This understanding of what's wrong with exploiting animals for
"food", with the ubiquity of animal-derived "food", and with the non-necessity
of consuming animal products has led to some interesting situations for us as
vegan parents. Sometimes I take the boys into a coffee shop during the day.
This coffee shop has a big picture of some milky liquid being poured into a
coffee-like liquid, and every time the boys see it they loudly go on and on
about how it's not vegan, it's cows' milk and it's for the baby cows,
"they hurt the cows for that", it's "just not right", etc.
Honestly, I love having the opportunity of openly agreeing with them (probably to the
surprise of anyone listening). "Yea, I agree, fellas. It's not right.
Cows' milk is for baby cows, not for us". I can assure you that if you're
ever in this situation, you will draw plenty of attention from bystanders.

Then there are situations with relatives. Earlier this month
while visiting grandparents and other relatives in the Midwest, Astral and Defy
became suspicious of certain things they saw at grandma and grandpa's home and kept asking us which relatives eat
animal products. For the first time we had to explain to them that nobody there is
vegan, and DnA seemed a little confused and saddened by this idea. Unlike DnA, Kenya
and I weren't always vegans, and we remember that at one time we too had no clue about the realities of
animal use. We don't in any way want to condone any animal
exploitation, but we also don't want the boys to think less of their otherwise incredibly
thoughtful, kind, supportive, and loving family members. We told the boys that
not everyone understands that animals are exploited and inevitably "hurt" to obtain animal products. This lack of understanding
might be true in some cases, but it felt somewhat dishonest, and none of us
seemed satisfied with that response. We just didn't know what else to
say when put on the spot.

Although grandma ate vegan and made many delicious vegan meals throughout
our entire stay (including a veganized version of a 100 year-old family pretzel recipe), not everyone else did. One morning grandpa was sitting at the dining room table,
eating his very non-vegan breakfast and washing it down with a tall glass of
cows' milk. Astral and Defy noticed, and one of them asked him if he was, in
fact, drinking cows' milk. Grandpa said "yes", thinking nothing
of it. The boys then began complaining and ultimately refused to sit at the
table with him. Again, we didn't quite know how to deal with that kind
of situation, so we just used the dining room table when he was finished. Grandpa sort of laughed it off and tried to tell the boys that he was simply drinking milk, just like them. Astral made a face, crossed his arms, said "no!" and he and D walked away.
Fortunately, Astral and Defy still enjoyed spending time with grandpa after that, just not so much during meal
time...

Please feel free to contact us at ourveganpregnancy@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @VeganTwins.

6 comments:

Hey everybody! You are right to keep on this blog!I'm a Brazilian girl, planning on have vegan children in the upcoming years and much more motivated now that I've found this site. I've been reading all your stories since the pregnancy, and even though you don't post as often as you used to, everybody that searches for information on vegan pregnancy/parenting can find this page, full of information and good (and cute) examples. You are great parents raising gorgeous kids with the best philosophy of life. That's why you deserve all the best!Congratulations!

Thank you so much for dropping by and leaving us such a nice comment! We deeply appreciate the kind words.

We wish you all the best with your prospective pregnancy/children! When the time comes, if you have any specific questions or concerns, please feel free to send them our way. We're happy to help out in any way we can!